There are a wide variety of packaging systems and methods for the immobilization, packaging and transporting of articles. The various methods include, but are not limited to, the employment of corrugated boxes, plastic film laminates, polyurethane foam that is foamed in place around an article, loose fill foam poured over an article protected in an outer container, bubble wraps and the like. The type of packaging system utilized often depends upon the shape of the article to be immobilized, packaged and transported. For example, tubular articles may be transported in a cardboard tube. As a convenience to the recipient and to the shipper, packaging systems for transporting tubular articles in a tube typically may contain information printed on the inside of the tube. Printing information on the inside of the tube allows the shipper and recipient to select similar articles for their needs. It will be appreciated that information that is usually printed on the outside of the tube is covered by the product, thus making it impossible to select similar articles prior to use.
Heretofore, the information was printed on the inside of the tube on flat stock material and then the tube was formed from the stock material. It will be appreciated that a difficulty in manufacturing and identifying the tubes in this manner is that is that it is virtually impossible for the shipper of the tube to inventory the correct number of tubes needed for a particular article on a particular date. Consequently, on some days there may be a surplus or a shortage of tubes with the correct information for a particular article.
In view of the foregoing, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for printing information on the interior wall of a tube container after the tube container is manufactured. It is another object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for printing information on the interior wall of a tube container that is simple to manufacture and economical to operate. It is another object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus capable of interchangeably printing information on the interior wall of a tube container. Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a method and apparatus that allows the operator to change information to be printed and the print color.